UNIVERSITI SAINS MALAYSIA
Final Examination 2015/2016 Academic Session
May/June 2016
JMK 417E– New Literature in English From The Asia Pacific [Kesusasteraan Baru Berbahasa Inggeris Dari Asia Pasifik]
Duration: 3 hours [Masa : 3 jam]
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Please check that this examination paper consists SIX pages of printed material before you begin the examination.
[Sila pastikan bahawa kertas peperiksaan ini mengandungi ENAM muka surat yang bercetak sebelum anda memulakan peperiksaan ini.]
Instructions : Answer FOUR (4) question only. You may answer either in Bahasa Malaysia or English.
[Jawab EMPAT (4) soalan. Anda dibenarkan menjawab sama ada dalam Bahasa Malaysia atau Bahasa Inggeris.]
Read the instructions carefully before answering.
[Baca arahan dengan teliti sebelum anda menjawab soalan.]
In the event of any discrepancies, the English version shall be used.
[Sekiranya terdapat sebarang percanggahan pada soalan peperiksaan, versi Bahasa Inggeris hendaklah digunapakai.]
- 2 -
Instructions: Answer four (4) questions only.
[Arahan: Jawab empat (4) soalan sahaja]
1. “Periathai opened one of the two tin trunks she had brought from India. Handling every object gently, she took out a statue of Nataraja, the cosmic dancer ringed by a circle of flame, a copper tray, a hand-woven silver-and-gold sari, bangles and a thali.
… Perhaps Nataraja spoke to her of the original spirit, and her personal articles of the home she had left behind. It was a re-immersion, a recreating of the thick spiritual and domestic air she must have breathed there, back in some remote district in India” (K.S.
Maniam, The Return, 5-6).
Based on the passage above, elaborate on the character of Periathai in The Return and the roles she plays in Ravi’s life.
[Berdasarkan kenyataan di atas, huraikan tentang watak Periathai dalam The Return dan peranan yang dimainkan Periathai dalam hidup Ravi.]
(25 marks/markah)
2. “Like the cross-cultural relationship between Gita and Dahlan, the relationship between Yun Ming and Siti Sara … acts as a metaphor of Fernando’s fabric of an encompassing nation” (Quayum, 91).
Discuss with reference to Green is the Colour.
[“Seperti hubungan rentas budaya antara Gita dan Dahlan, hubungan Yun Ming dan Siti Sara adalah metafora Fernando tentang sebuah negara yang meliputi semua kaum”. Bincangkan dengan merujuk novel Green is the Colour.]
(25 marks/markah)
3. Discuss the idea of public and private in Authur Yap’s poems (refer to the Appendix).
[Bincangkan idea awam dan peribadi dalam puisi-puisi terpilih Arthur Yap. (Lihat Lampiran).
(25 marks/markah)
4. Discuss the techniques employed by Lloyd Fernando in Scorpion Orchid to address
the discourses of race relations in Singapore.
[Bincangkan teknik-teknik yang digunakan oleh Lloyd Fernando untuk mengemukakan wacana tentang hubungan kaum di Singapura.]
(25 marks/markah)
5. Elaborate on the idea of moral dilemma in human versus animal instincts in The Woman Who Had Two Navels by Nick Joaquin.
[Huraikan tentang idea dilema moral dalam manusia berlawanan dengan naluri haiwan dalam The Woman Who Had Two Navels karya Nick Joaquin.]
(25 marks/markah)
6. With reference to Existentialist philosophy, elaborate on Nanda Kaul’s desire for withdrawal from life in Fire on the Mountain by Anita Desai.
[Dengan merujuk falsafah aliran Existentialist, huraikan tentang keinginan Nanda Kaul mengundurkan diri daripada hidup dalam Fire on the Mountain, karya Anita Desai.]
(25 marks/markah)
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APPENDIX THE CORRECTNESS OF FLAVOUR
waiting for the lime sherbet to arrive, mother turned around to her vacuous child:
boy, you heard what i said earlier?
nowadays, they emphasise english.
boy rolled his squinty eyes to the ceiling waitress returned, flustered, and started on her own emphases:
lime sherbet today don’t have.
mango got. strawberry also don’t have.
mother, upset and acutely strident:
today DOESN’T have.
today DOES NOT have.
THE CORRECTNESS OF FLAVOUR waiting for the lime sherbet to arrive, mother turned around to her vacuous child:
boy, you heard what i said earlier?
nowadays, they emphasise english.
boy rolled his squinty eyes to the ceiling waitress returned, flustered, and started on her own emphases:
lime sherbet today don’t have.
mango got. strawberry also don’t have.
mother, upset and acutely strident:
today DOESN’T have.
today DOES NOT have.
2 mothers in a h d b playground ah beng is so smart
already he can watch tv & know the whole story.
your kim cheong is also quite smart, what boy is he in the exam?
this playground is not too bad, but i’m always
because you know why?
kim cheong eats so little.
give him some complain. my ah beng was like that, now he’s different. if you give him anything he’s sure to finish it all up.
sure, sure. cheong’s father buys him vitamins but he keeps it inside his mouth
& later gives it to the cat.
i scold like mad but what for?
if if don’t see it, how can i scold?
on saturday, tv showed a new type, special for children. why don’t you call his father buy some? maybe they are better.
money’s no problem. it’s not that we want to save. if we buy it
& he doesn’t eat it, throwing money into the jamban is the same.
ah beng’s father spends so much, takes out the mosaic floor & wants to make terazzo or what.
we also got new furniture, bought from diethelm.
the sofa is so soft. i dare not sit. they all sit like don’t want to get up, so expensive.
nearly two thousand dollars, sure must be good.
that you can’t say. my toa-soh
bought an expensive sewing machine, after 6 months, it is already spoilt.
she took it back but .... beng,
come here, come, don’t play the fool.
your tuition teacher is coming.
wah! kim cheong, now you’re quite big.
come, cheong, quick go home & bathe.
ah pah wants to take you chya-hong in new motor-car.
[JMK 417E]
- 6 - a scroll painting
the mountains are hazy with timeless passivity sprawling monotonously in the left-hand corner while cloud diffuse and fill the entire top half before bumping daintily into a bright red parakeet perched suicide-like on a beautifully gnarled branch arched by the weight of fruit and one ripe peach hung a motionless inch from the gaping beak here is transient beauty
caught in permanence
but of what avail is such perpetual unattainment?
I know the stupid bird can never eat the stupid peach
- oooOooo -
